Month: November, 2011

Guest post by Matt Polsky, social media director for Veterans United Home Loans By now, many of us have already started setting up our Google+ business pages, and have noticed that there’s nothing overly special about these business pages yet, since they currently lack a vanity URL, have no setting for multiple admins and closely resemble a personal page. However, they will be connected back to Google’s search engine in a way that removes the noise made by competitors. Towards…

Part 13 in a series introducing my new book, The End of Business as Usual…this series serves as the book’s prequel. These days, customer service seems to be a contradiction of words and intentions. Year after year, customers are appealing for attention, efficiency and a communicated sense of being appreciated. After all, what is the value of customer acquisition if retention itself isn’t valued? Now with social networks becoming the preferred channel of communication among connected consumers, businesses are losing…

This is a guest post by Magdalena Georgieva of HubSpot, a marketing software company based in Cambridge, MA. What makes one voice louder than the other? While this is a simple question, it often takes us to a nuanced answer. Being aware of these nuances is essential in the world of marketing. If your voice is louder than mine, it could be either because you can reach more people than me or because you can reach the right people. In…

Dave Peck is the author of Think Before you Engage, a new book that guides readers through 100 questions to ask before starting a social media marketing campaign. He asked me to write the foreword and as a friend and neighbor, I of course said yes. But, the only condition was that upon publishing, I could share the foreword with you here… The End of Business as Usual and the Beginning of a New Era of Adaptive Businesses Twitter, Facebook,…

One of the most often asked questions about The End of Business as Usual is how it’s different than Engage. I thought I take a moment to answer it here just in case you were wondering the same thing. Engage was and is special. In fact, I felt the mission and content of the book was so special, that I wrote it twice. I viewed both versions as my chance to not only document the transformation in marketing and service…

Guest post by Todd Blecher, Communications Director, The Boeing Company Much wisdom did Yoda accumulate. But experience with social media I think not the Jedi had. Yoda’s insistence that we “do, or do not. There is no try,” to brand journalism does not apply. When it comes to brand journalism the instruction should be “Try. There is no do or do not.” In fact, since April, 2010, when we transformed www.boeing.com into a brand journalism platform, we’ve been all about…

Part 12 in a series introducing my new book, The End of Business as Usual…this series serves as the book’s prequel. Over the years, customer service has been something of a paradox within the organization. The name itself inspires dedication to helping people. And while that is the intention of customer service professionals worldwide, customer service as a line item in business accounting has often placed it in the hands of outsourced organizations, under-qualified personnel, or in the hands of…

Part 11 in a series introducing my new book, The End of Business as Usual…this series serves as the book’s prequel. There are those who believe social media is the catalyst for a new genre of business and that it will ultimately change how companies engage with customers. Others believe that for the organization to truly matter, it must adopt a culture of customer and employee centricity. Then there are those who study the evolution of consumer behavior and market…

The other day I saw a Tweet that caught my attention. It read “16 Reasons Why You Should Read the End of Business as Usual” and included a link. I ended up on the site of Josh Duncan who publishes visual summaries of information that moves him. I was intrigued and decided to click through the 16 quotes from the book that motivated him to take the time to create a presentation. To put it simply, I was moved and…

Guest post by Francisco Dao Most people view the social web as a tool for bringing people together and sharing ideas. They credit it with everything from democratizing media to enabling the protests of Arab spring, but they fail to see how these same community building attributes can fuel dangerous thought bubbles and lead us down paths of extremism. By providing a forum for everyone, the web – especially social web platforms – allow us to connect with people we…